Circumstances and Text.
See (in this Volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1905 (JUNE-OCTOBER).
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1906.
At the Algeciras Conference on the Morocco question.
See (in this Volume)
EUROPE: A. D. 1905-1906.
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1906-1909.
A "rotative" system of Party Government and its results.
King Carlos assumes dictatorial authority.
His Minister, Senhor Franco.
Murder of the King and Crown Prince.
Succession of King Manuel.
Recent Ministries.
For many years prior to 1906 Portugal had been governed by two
political parties, calling themselves the Regeneradors and the
Progressistas, who, it has been said, "relieved one another in
office, and in the spoils of office, at decent intervals, by a
tacit arrangement between their leaders." This regular
ministerial rotation led to the popular nickname of Rotativos,
applied to both parties, and significant of the contempt in
which they were held. The rotative system of party government,
"while ensuring a comfortable livelihood to a class of
professional politicians, was of no conspicuous benefit to the
country, and it was with a view to ending it that King Carlos
summoned Senhor João Franco, in May, 1906, to form a ministry.
Senhor Franco, who belonged to neither of the recognized
parties, set his hand zealously to the work of reform, but his
attempts to purge the Administration soon brought him into
conflict with powerful vested interests; and in May, 1907, the
politicians whose livelihoods he was reforming away united
against him in a policy of obstruction which made
Parliamentary government impossible.
{506}
He then dissolved the Cortes, and with the approval of the
King assumed the position of dictator. His work of reform
thenceforth proceeded apace. Drastic decrees, each aimed at
some abuse, followed one another with amazing rapidity. Strong
in the support of the King and of the best elements in the
country, execrated by the politicians whom he had spoiled, and
by the Press which he had done nothing to conciliate, he
continued on his headlong course, and at the end of January,
1908, he signed a decree practically amounting to a suspension
of civil liberties."
_Lisbon Correspondence,
London Times._
A tragedy followed quickly. On the 1st day of February, 1908,
the King, Dom Carlos, and the Crown Prince, Luiz Felipe, as
they rode through the streets of Lisbon, with the Queen and a
younger son in the same carriage, and attended by an escort,
were attacked by a throng of assassins and killed. The younger
prince was wounded; the Queen escaped by a miracle, one of the
assassins having been shot at the instant his pistol was aimed
at her. The two princes fought bravely, and the Queen threw
herself in front of her husband, attempting vainly to shield
him.
Prince Manuel, whose wound was not serious, succeeded to the
throne; but "the shots that killed Dom Carlos and Dom Luiz on
February 1 swept away the dictatorship of Senhor Franco and
the whole fabric which he had built up at so much cost during
18 months. Within a few hours of the murder Senhor Franco
resigned, under pressure, it is said, and left the country,
declaring that he had done with politics for ever. From being
the saviour of his country, the admiration of all enlightened
men, both at home and abroad, he became a pariah. His
supporters became mute and his system vanished. From that day
to this his followers have had no more than three or four
seats in the Chamber, where they have remained voiceless and
without influence on the course of events.
"That a seemingly vulgar crime should have so disproportionate
an effect was strange, and no less strange was the attitude of
the country. Whether owing to the widely entertained suspicion
that the murderers of the King were the tools of more
important personages whom it would not be safe to discover, or
to the fear of a Republican rising felt by the moderate and
respectable members of the community, is still a matter of
opinion; the fact remains that society lost its nerve. No
burst of indignation, no adequate expression of sympathy for
the Royal Family was heard; no steps were taken to trace the
authors of the crime. … The disappearance of Senhor Franco
left the two old ‘rotativist’ parties in presence, the
Progressistas under Senhor Luciano de Castro, and the
Regeneradores under Senhor Vilhena, the recently elected
successor of the veteran Hintze Ribeiro. Compared to these,
neither the Republicans, whose strength was supposed to be
considerable in the country, nor the ‘dissident’
Progressistas, under Senhor Alpoim, were of any account as
Parliamentary factors. A coalition Government was formed on
March 4, under Admiral Ferreira do Amaral, consisting of two
Regeneradores, two Progressistas, and two so-called
Independents, personal adherents of the Premier, who resembled
him in having no marked political ideals or convictions. The
elections, which took place in April, returned 62
Regeneradores and 59 Progressistas, thus starting the
Government on its career with the handsome following of 121 in
a House of 155. The matters with which the Government had to
deal were mainly three—namely, the revision of the decrees
issued by Senhor Franco as Dictator, the question of the Civil
List and of the advances made by the nation to the Royal
Family, and electoral reform. The Civil List was successfully
settled, but little progress had been made with the remainder
of the programme when the first serious defection occurred.
During the recess the Government announced that the municipal
elections, which had been suspended by Senhor Franco in favour
of nominated councils, would be held again in November, a
decision bitterly attacked by Senhor Vilhena, who announced
that the Regeneradores could no longer support the Government.
The elections were duly held, and, owing to the deliberate
abstention of the Monarchist parties, the Republicans captured
unopposed every seat on the Lisbon council. The unpopularity
incurred by the Government on account of this unnecessary gift
to the common enemy brought about a Government crisis. Admiral
Amaral referred the matter to the Council of State, who, to
his great surprise and annoyance, advised the resignation of
the Government. The Premier and his two independents
accordingly retired, and the Cabinet was reconstituted under
Senhor Campos Henriques, who together with Senhor Wenceslao de
Lima, Minister of Foreign Affairs, continued to represent the
Regenerador party. The late Premier’s ‘Independents’ made way
for the Progressistas, who thus held five seats in the Cabinet
to two held by the Regeneradores. Senhor Vilhena, who had
brought about the fall of the late Government, was not offered
a seat in the new one, and he immediately resumed his
opposition; but on this occasion he only carried two-thirds of
his party with him, 22 members deciding to support the
Government. This defection of the Regeneradores under Senhor
Vilhena, the first serious indication of a return to the old
system of ‘rotativism,’ was shortly followed by that of the
late Premier and his ‘Independents,’ so that when the Cortes
met on March 1, [1909], the imposing Government majority of a
year before had dwindled to 10 or 15."
Then followed daily scenes of disorder and obstruction in
Parliament until Senhor Campos Henriques surrendered, at the
end of March. As _The Times_ correspondent expressed it,
"as soon as the Opposition in the Lower House expressed its
impatience by a banging of desks, while its leader in the
House of Peers solemnly affirmed the ‘incompatibility’ of his
party with the Government, Ministers determined to avoid all
further unpleasantness by resigning." The resignation was
accepted by the King, and three party leaders in succession
made attempts in the next month to conduct the Government,
without success. Senhor Sebastiäo Telles held the reins for
three weeks, and then passed them to Senhor Wenceslao de Lima,
who framed up a nominally non-party Ministry on the 13th of
May. Senhor De Lima conducted the Government until the
following December, when, on the 19th, he resigned, and a
"Progressist Ministry" was formed, under Senhor Beirao.
_London Times Correspondence of various Dates._
{507}
Writing from Lisbon on the 5th of January, 1910, the
_Times_ correspondent said:
"It is the Republicans who alone seem to be making progress.
Their activities are unceasing, their newspapers the best
informed and most ably conducted, their meetings, held all
over the land, the most largely attended and most
enthusiastic. At the same hour as that of the Royal reception
on New Year’s Day the Republican municipality of Lisbon held a
like function, not only largely and most influentially
attended, but to the distinct diminution of the attendance in
the Royal Palace."
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1909.
Demonstration against the Religious Orders.
The following despatch to the Press was sent from Lisbon
August 3, 1909:
"Freethinkers from all political parties in Portugal,
represented by a Liberal committee, to-day presented to the
Cortes a petition for the suppression of the religious orders
in Portugal and the abrogation of the existing laws against
freedom of conscience. This step was an outcome of the meeting
held in this city yesterday.
"The committee was accompanied to the Houses of Parliament by
an immense crowd, and some wild scenes ensued. Among other
things the petitioners asked for the abrogation of the recent
law permitting religious associations to acquire landed
property, a procedure which up to the present time has been
illegal. Senhor Camacho moved the consideration of the
subject, and when the motion was voted down the galleries
broke out in protestation. There was considerable violence on
the floor of the House. The Deputies engaged in a struggle in
which desks and chairs were overturned, and the Chamber had to
be cleared twice. The tumult was continued in the streets, but
without serious results."
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1909.
Offer of Dom Miguel to renounce his Claim to the Throne.
Dom Miguel, son of the Dom Miguel who, from 1828 to 1833 held
the throne of Portugal in defiance of the rights of Maria da
Gloria, his elder brother’s daughter (see, in Volume IV.,
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1824-1889), had kept up his father’s
pretensions to the crown until the spring of 1909, when he
offered to renounce it, if permitted to live in Portugal as a
citizen. The permission was refused, for the reason that his
return, with that of a number of nobles of his party, "would
be regarded as a challenge to the rising tide of Liberalism."
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1909 (April).
Earthquake in and around Lisbon.
See (in this Volume)
EARTHQUAKES: PORTUGAL.
PORTUGUESE AFRICA.
See (in this Volume)
AFRICA: PORTUGUESE.
POSTAGE, BEGINNING OF INTERNATIONAL PENNY.
The postal treaty establishing two-cent or penny postage on
letters between Great Britain and the United States went into
effect October 1, 1909.
POSTAL SERVICE, IN CHINA.
See (in this Volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1908.
POSTAL SERVICE STRIKE, IN FRANCE.
See (in this Volume)
LABOR ORGANIZATION: FRANCE: A. D. 1909 (MARCH-MAY).
POSTAL AND TELEGRAPHIC STRIKE, IN RUSSIA.
See (in this Volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1904-1905.
----------POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: THEIR PROBLEMS: Start---
POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT:
Old Age Homes, in Vienna.
"In most towns there is a tendency, in this our day, to deal
more generously with destitute children than with destitute
men and women. In Berlin and New York, for instance, both
money and thought are lavished on the young whom the community
supports; while as for the aged, what is given to them is
given only of necessity. In Vienna it is otherwise; there the
arrangements for the relief of the old people are better—both
more carefully considered and more liberal—than those for the
relief of children, a fact that says more, perhaps, for the
hearts than for the heads of the authorities.
"If a man—or a woman—above 60 is without money wherewith to
provide for himself, or the strength to earn the money, he
applies to the Guardian of his ward for help. Then, if he has
a home to live in, and someone to take care of him, or is able
to take care of himself, he is granted out relief, a money
allowance if he can be trusted to spend it wisely, otherwise
relief in kind. Supposing, however, he is homeless, feeble and
‘alone-standing,’ he is sent to a Versorgungshaus, or old-age
home, if there is a vacant place there; and, if not, to a
small poor-house until there is.
"Versorgungshäuser are the distinctive feature of the Austrian
Poor Relief system so far as the aged are concerned. Already
in the days of Joseph II. Vienna had two if not more of these
homes, and at the present time it has six. One of them is
reserved exclusively for Citizens; another, that at Mauerbach,
is reserved for persons who, owing to their perverted notions
as to what is seemly, cannot be accorded the full liberty the
old people in the other homes enjoy. In all the six together
there is space for more than 6,000 inmates. As the
Versorgungshäuser are looked upon by classes and masses alike
as the homes of the aged poor, the place where they have a
right to be, no disgrace is attached to going there. …
"Although in Vienna much is done for the poor, the burden
entailed by Poor Relief is by no means overwhelming. In 1903
the full cost of indoor relief, outdoor relief and sick
relief, together with the cost of administration, was only
£942,870, and of this £250,672 was obtained from private
sources. At that time the town was providing 31,000 adults—old
men and women for the most part—with allowances ranging in
amount from 30 kronen to 6 kronen a month; it was maintaining
6,790 more in old-age homes and other institutions; and was
defraying the cost of the Asyl and workhouse. It was
supporting, or contributing to the support of, 10,260 children
who were either with their own relatives or were boarded out;
and was maintaining 3,246 in orphanages, etc. It defrayed the
cost of the 27,000 babies who passed through the Foundling
Hospital, and of the 19,085 children who were temporarily in
institutions. It also provided 77,000 boys and girls with
school books, and contributed generously to many private
philanthropic societies. Roughly speaking, the cost to the
town of Poor Relief in Vienna per head of the population is
8s. 4d."
_Edith Sellers,
Poor Relief in Vienna
(Contemporary Review, December, 1900)._
{508}
POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT:
Pensions, &c.: Denmark: A. D. 1907.
Old Age Pensions.
Some interesting details of the working of the Danish old-age
pensions system are contained in a British Consular report
issued in May, 1909. The latest available statistics show that
on March 31, 1907, 70,445 persons over 60 years of age were in
receipt of pensions, which amounted in the aggregate to
£451,000 [$2,255,000] for the financial year 1906-1907. The
number of pensioners on March 31, 1906, was 68,800, and the
amount distributed in the financial year 1905-1906, £420,444.
Both the number of pensioners and the average amount of the
pensions are increasing. The ages of the "principal"
pensioners (_i. e._, of the actual recipients of pensions
apart from wives and children dependent on them) were, on
March 31st, 1906, as follows:
60 to 65 years of age—3,173 men, 4,239 women;
65 to 70 years—5,831 men, 6,756 women;
70 years and over—13,974 men and 17,037 women.
About a quarter of the population over 60 years of age is in
receipt of pensions, the women especially availing themselves
of their benefits. The average amount distributed to each
"principal" recipient was £6 5s. in 1905-1906 and £6 11s. in
1906-1907.
POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: England: A. D. 1908.
Old Age Pensions Act.
The Working of the Law.
Its Pitiful and Appalling Disclosures.
The Act of the British Parliament, "to Provide for Old Age
Pensions" (August 1, 1908), declares in its first section that
"the receipt of an old age pension under this Act shall not
deprive the pensioner of any franchise, right, or privilege,
or subject him to any disability." The second section defines
the "statutory conditions for the receipt of an old age
pension by any person" to be: the person must have attained
the age of seventy; must satisfy the pension authorities that
he has been a British subject and resident in the United
Kingdom for at least twenty years; that his yearly means, as
calculated under the stipulations of the Act, do not exceed
thirty-one pounds ten shillings. But, notwithstanding the
fulfilment of these statutory conditions, a person is
disqualified while he is in receipt of any poor relief, other
than medical or surgical assistance on the recommendation of a
medical officer, or relief rendered by means of the
maintenance of a dependent in an asylum, infirmary, or
hospital, or any relief that by law is expressly declared not
to be a disqualification for any franchise, right, or
privilege. Furthermore, any person is disqualified for the
receipt of an old age pension "if, before he becomes entitled
to a pension, he has habitually failed to work according to
his ability, opportunity, and need, for the maintenance or
benefit of himself and those legally dependent upon him:
Provided that a person shall not be disqualified under this
paragraph if he has continuously for ten years up to attaining
the age of sixty, by means of payments to friendly, provident,
or other societies, or trade unions, or other approved steps,
made such provision against old age, sickness, infirmity, or
want or loss of employment as may be recognized as proper
provision for the purpose by regulations under this Act, and
any such provision, when made by the husband in the case of a
married couple living together, shall, as respects any right
of the wife to a pension, be treated as provision made by the
wife as well as by the husband."
Disqualification exists, also, during detention in a lunatic
asylum; and not only during any penal imprisonment that has
been ordered "without the option fine," but for ten years
thereafter.
Specific rules are given in the Act for "calculating the means
of a person" who seeks the pension; and the rate of weekly
pension to be paid is proportioned inversely to such
ascertained means, as follows: "Where the yearly means of the
pensioner as calculated under this Act:
Do not exceed £21.,—5s. 0d.;
exceed £21, but do not exceed £23, 12s. 6d.,—4s. 0d.;
exceed £23 12s. 6d., but do not exceed £26 5s.,—3s. 0d.;
exceed £26 5s., but do not exceed £28 17s. 6d.,—2s. 0c2.;
exceed £28 17s. 6d., but do not exceed £31 10s.,—1s. 0d.;
exceed £31 10s., no pension."
The Act became operative on the 1st of January, 1909. At that
time the persons recommended for pensions, throughout the
Kingdom, numbered 490,028, with somewhat over 148,000 pending
claims. The original estimate, on the discussion of the
measure, had been that the eligible pensioners would not
exceed 500,000, and that the cost of the undertaking, to begin
with, would be about £6,000,000. It was evident, therefore,
before pension payments began, that these estimates were much
too low.
From Ireland it was reported by the Press on the opening day
of pension payments that "more than 4,000 persons will to-day
receive old-age pensions in the city of Dublin. Claims
continue to be received in large numbers, and the pension
authorities estimate that, inasmuch as the last census of the
city showed that there were 6,800 persons over 70 years of age
then alive, at least 1,200 eligible persons have not yet made
application. Yesterday afternoon it was stated that in all
5,600 claims had been lodged.
"Of the 209,000 claims lodged altogether in Ireland, it is
estimated that 50,000 will be disallowed, and that £30,000
weekly will be required to satisfy those which have been held
to be good. So far as Dublin is concerned, less than 90 per
cent, of the inhabitants who are over 70 years of age have
claimed pensions, so that the rural districts are responsible
for the larger percentage of claimants in Ireland as compared
with England and Scotland."
From Scotland it was reported that "in Glasgow, the number of
persons of 70 years and over is 13,160, and fully half of
those made claims. A rough estimate places the number of full
pensions granted at about 5,550. In addition, a number of
allowances of the smaller amounts, ranging from 4s. to 1s.,
have been made."
In London, on the 1st of January, 1908, there had been 39,043
claims considered, of which 36,108 were allowed. Of these,
31,327 were for 5s., 1,701 for 4s., 1,827 for 3s., 797 for
2s., and 456 for 1s.
{509}
Speaking in Parliament on the 1st of March, with deep feeling,
of the working of the Pension Act and of the revelation of
poverty it had made, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr.
Lloyd-George, said: "The pension officers, especially in
Ireland, had been appalled at the amount of undisclosed
poverty, and that was why he was not disposed to criticize too
harshly the administration of the Act in that country, even if
it had resulted in addition of a considerable sum to the
estimate of the Government. The details of poverty in Ireland
were perfectly horrifying. It was a disgrace to any civilized
country that reasonable human beings should be allowed to live
under such conditions. But the same condition of things was
found in Great Britain also in many cases. He made a special
point of investigating the matter, and pension committees and
pension officers all told the same story of people facing
poverty and privation for years with resignation, fortitude,
and uncomplaining patience, and all asked the same question
and asked it in vain—How on earth could those poor people have
managed to keep body and soul together on such slender
resources? They had not understated their resources; on the
contrary, there were cases in which they had overstated them
from a feeling of pride.
"What struck one in such cases was how the people had fought
against the horror of the Poor Law. There were 270,000 people
over 70 years of age in receipt of Poor Law relief. The
Old-Age Pensions Act had disclosed the presence in the
community of over 600,000 people the vast majority of whom
were living in circumstances of great poverty, and yet
disdained the charity of the Poor Law."
In the report of the Local Government Board for 1908, the
inspector of poor-law administration in the eastern counties
of England reported a substantial decrease in pauperism during
the year, and attributed this mainly to the passing of the
Old-Age Pensions Act. Persons verging on the age of 70 were
doing everything possible to preserve their qualifications for
pensions, and their sons and daughters, in the hope that the
old folk will be able to stand alone, are maintaining them
till the pensions are due in order that they may not be
forfeited by parish relief.
POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: France: A. D. 1909.
State Railway Servants Pensions.
In July, 1909, the Chamber of Deputies adopted a Bill for
pensioning the railway employees of the State which had
already passed the Senate. It applies to some 308,000 persons,
who will be pensioned in several classes at ages ranging from
50 to 60 years, and the estimated annual cost will exceed
$5,000,000. The Minister of Public Works, M. Barthou,
described the measure as an acknowledgment on the part of the
country of a debt which it owed to a deserving body of public
servants, who for the last 11 years had waited patiently for
the fulfilment of a promise and upon various trying occasions
during that period had not abused the confidence which had
been reposed in their good sense and public spirit.
POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: France: A. D. 1910.
General Old-Age Pension Law.
A general measure for the pensioning of workmen in old age,
which had been pending in the French Parliament for nearly
three years, became law in April, 1910. Passed in the first
instance by the Chamber of Deputies in 1907, it was held in
the Senate, undergoing an extensive remodeling, until the 12th
of February, 1910, when that body gave it an unanimous vote.
In the Chamber of Deputies its exaction of compulsory
contributions from the wages of workmen to the pension fund
was opposed by a section of the Socialists, but supported by
the Socialist leader Jaures, as well as by the Briand
Ministry, and carried by a decisive vote on April 1st.
"Workingmen, domestic servants, clerks, and farm laborers to
the number of nearly 12,000,000, whose annual earnings are
below 3,000 francs, are placed under a system of compulsory
insurance. For the farmer and small proprietor whose income
ranges between 3,000 and 5,000 francs, an optional form of
insurance is provided. Of this class there are nearly six
million men and women in the country." In all, about
18,000,000 of the population of France are beneficiaries of
the Act.
POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT:
The German System of State-aided Pensions,
compared with other systems.
The following is from the report of a lecture on State-aided
Pensions for the Poor, given in London, on the 3d of February,
1909, by the Honourable W. P. Reeves, Director of the London
School of Economics and Political Science. It is an admirable
summary of facts that exhibit the working, down to the present
time, of the German system of working men’s insurance adopted
between 1883-1889.
See (in Volume IV. of this work)
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1883-1889.
See (in Volume VI. of this work)
GERMANY: A. D. 1897-1900, in Volume VI.):
"The subject, said the lecturer, fell into three
groups—contributory pensions, free State universal pensions,
and free State limited pensions. Germany, France, and Belgium
afforded examples of the contributory pensions, and Denmark,
Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom of the limited
free pensions. The universal free pensions were likely to
remain an ideal. The Belgian superannuation for the poor,
provided by voluntary contributions on the part of the insurer
and by State bonuses, had encouraged thrift, but it yielded an
average pension of only £3 a year. It could not, therefore, be
pronounced to be a success, and the State had recognized its
failure by inaugurating a system of free old-age pensions for
the utterly destitute. A similar superannuation scheme in
France, also maintained principally by voluntary
contributions, had only attracted 8 per cent. of the class for
which it was intended, and there, too, it had been found
necessary to introduce free old-age pensions. There was also a
voluntary system in Germany, but that was a kind of side show
to the great national system of insurance by compulsory
contributions. This latter system was a gigantic experiment,
and it really did deserve the name of national. Professor
Ashley had shown that of the 10,700,000 men who were insurable
under this scheme 8,857,000 actually were insured; and of the
5,800,000 women who were qualified to provide for pensions
4,524,000 were actually paying their contributions. The system
had been in operation for 26 years, and the amount paid out in
that time must have exceeded £300,000,000, while 70 or 80
million persons had been benefited by it from first to last.
The number of persons affected yearly by the system was
25,000,000; and in 1907 nearly £30,000,000 was spent in the
three divisions of the triple system—old age, sickness, and
accidents. He had only to deal with one division—old age and
infirmity. The accumulated funds in this division amounted to
about £70,000,000; and the amount paid out to the insurers in
1906 was nearly £8,300,000, and in 1907 £8,400,000. The
population liable to insure was about 14¼ millions, and the
number of pensions in force at the end of 1907 was 979,000.
{510}
"Under this German scheme the class compulsorily insured
consisted of men and single women earning less than £100 a
year. The funds were provided in equal contributions by
employers and employed—the principle underlying the system
being that of deferred wages. It was a question whether it was
encouraging thrift to withhold from such wage-earners 2 per
cent. of their wages. The State bore the cost of management,
and added to every pension a bonus of £2 10s. a year. For the
working of the system the wage-earners were divided into five
grades:
(1) Those who earn up to £17 10s. a year;
(2) those who earn any sum between £17 10s. and £27 10s.;
(3) those who earn any sum between £27 10s. and £42 10s.;
(4) those who earn any sum between £42 10s. and £57; and
(5) those who earn any sum between £57 and £100.
The lowest wage-earners paid seven-eighths of a penny per week
for their old-age pension, and the highest wage-earners about
2¼d. No special consideration was shown for a married man. The
five grades of pensions were:
(1) £5 10s. a year;
(2) £7;
(3) £8 10s.;
(4) £10; and
(5) £11 10s.
If the labourer died after subscribing for 200 weeks his wife
and children were entitled to receive what he had subscribed,
but nothing more.
"The lot of the widows and orphans was one of the black
features of the system. A married woman could not qualify for
an old-age pension. The amount of the weekly contribution was
fixed for ten years. In 1906 the receipts exceeded the
expenditure by £6,000,000; the cost of administration was only
£850,000. But that was only the minor part of the provision
made for elderly people in Germany. The main provision was
made under the head of infirmity or invalidity occurring
before the pension age—70. If the insurers, after having
subscribed for not less than four years, broke down and were
unable to earn wages, they were entitled to more generous
treatment. If curable they were cured in State sanatoriums and
received temporary sickness pensions. If incurable they
received a pension which was regulated by the number of years
they had subscribed, and varied from a _minimum_ of £5
16s. in the lowest grade for four years’ subscriptions to £22
10s. in the highest grade for 50 years’ subscriptions. The
insurer began to pay his contributions at the age of 17, and
for an old-age pension he had to subscribe 50 weeks a year for
24 years—1,200 weeks in all. Though the system had not checked
Socialism or militant trade unionism, it had attained its real
purpose, for it had conferred an enormous boon upon the poor."
At the time when the remark quoted above, touching the
defective provision of the German law for widows and orphans,
was made, the Imperial Government was preparing to amend it.
The London _Times_ of April 17, 1909, gave, in its
correspondence from Berlin, the account of a draft Bill, just
made public, which the Imperial Ministry of the Interior had
prepared for presentation to the Federal Council, the object
being to combine and coordinate "the seven compulsory
insurance laws of 1883 to 1899," together with certain
amendments and additions. "It is understood," wrote the
correspondent, "that the Bill will not reach the Reichstag
before the autumn of this year. Whereas many authorities …
have favored a thorough unification of the three systems of
invalidity and old age, accident, and sick insurance, the
immediate proposals of the Government would leave the three
systems separate and distinct, while codifying the law and the
regulations which are common to all branches of compulsory
insurance, and establishing a joint and threefold system of
higher administration." The main purpose of the bill was to
rectify that lack of proper provision for widows and orphans
which was noted above. "The need of solving this problem,"
said the correspondent, "is really the immediate occasion of
reform, and the proposed solution is the most important
feature of the reform scheme. An essential feature of the
tariff law of 1902 was the ear-marking—by the so-called Lex
Trimborn—for widows and orphans’ insurance of the surplus
revenue from the increased Customs duties on corn and cattle.
The Lex Trimborn takes effect on January 1, 1910, but the
surplus revenue is lacking. For the financial year 1906 there
was no surplus. For 1907 there was a surplus of about
£2,000,000. For the financial year 1908 there will be no
surplus, although £2,650,000 was estimated for. In these
circumstances the Government—while apparently still cherishing
the hope that, upon the average of a long period of years, the
revised tariff will do what was expected of it—proposes to
provide for widows and orphans insurance by a simple all-round
extension of the system of invalidity and old-age insurance.
That is to say, the ‘contributions’ of employers and employed
are to be raised, and an Imperial subsidy, of fixed amount,
without regard to the annual revenue from Customs, is to be
added to the contributions.
"It is at present proposed that the weekly 'contributions' to
invalidity and old-age insurance shall, in order to provide
funds for widows and orphans’ pensions, be increased—upon the
mean average of the contributions of the five classes of
wage-earners—by one-fourth, and that the Empire shall add a
subsidy of £2 10s. a year to each widow’s pension and a
subsidy of £1 5s. a year to each orphan’s pension."
In February, 1909, a Parliamentary Committee of the British
Trades Union Congress, composed of men representing the Labor
Party in Parliament, reported the results of a visit to
Germany which the Committee had made in the previous November,
to examine conditions in that country, especially with
reference to the operation of the state system of insurance.
In their report they said: "The State assistance has acted as
an incentive and encouragement to workmen to make additional
provision for themselves and families through their trade
unions and private sick clubs. This is especially the case in
invalidity and old age. It has always been the workman’s
complaint, as well as that of the organizations, that the
assistance obtainable under the workman’s insurance system is
quite out of proportion to the subscriptions paid, and quite
insufficient for the maintenance of the pensioner.
{511}
In this connexion, it is interesting to note that in 1907 the
'Free' or Socialist unions, with a membership of 1,866,000,
granted £174,000 in sick pay and £19,000 in invalidity pay;
the State subsidies to invalidity and old-age pensions
amounting in 1906 to £2,437,000. The insurance pensions are
continually increasing; and it is stated that the invalidity
pensions will eventually reach a _maximum_ in the lowest
wages class of £9 5s., and in the highest one of £22 10s. The
funds accumulated in the hands of the Invalidity Pension
Offices amounted at the end of 1907 to about 70 million
pounds, and the workmen maintain that the time has now arrived
when either the pensions paid should be increased, or the
contributions levied decreased, as provided for by law."
"The members of the deputation were struck by the absence of
slums in the manufacturing quarters of the towns visited.
Nowhere did they see any quarter that could be classified
under the heading ‘slum.’ The cleanliness prevailing
throughout all the towns visited was also remarkable. No
beggars, feeble or emaciated men in tatters and rags were
encountered in the streets. Hundreds upon hundreds of
unemployed were seen by the deputation, but they seemed to
lack that dejection and absolute misery that is so frequently
met with in the streets of English towns.
"Workmen throughout Germany do not complain of any compulsory
deductions made by their employers from their wages for the
purpose of workmen’s insurances. Many of the largest employers
are favourably disposed towards these laws, and pay willingly.
On the other hand, probably the majority do complain of the
cost, although not opposed to the laws in principle."
POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: Poor Laws: England: A. D. 1896-1906.
Report of Royal Commission.
Increasing Pauperism.
In December, 1905, a Royal Commission, composed of nineteen
men and women of distinguished ability and of special
qualifications for the service, was appointed in Great
Britain, "to inquire—(1) Into the working of the laws relating
to the relief of poor persons in the United Kingdom; (2) into
the various means which have been adopted outside of the Poor
Laws for meeting distress arising from want of employment,
particularly during periods of severe industrial depression;
and to consider and report whether any, and, if so, what
modification of the Poor Laws or changes in their
administration or fresh legislation for dealing with distress
are advisable."
After three years of laborious investigation, making "more
than 800 personal visits to unions, meetings of boards of
guardians, and institutions in England, Scotland, and
Ireland," as well as examining over 1300 witnesses, the
Commission submitted an elaborate report in February, 1909.
Its findings as to the present working of the poor-laws and
the relief-systems of the United Kingdom, and its
recommendations for reform, cannot be summarized with any
clearness in such space as can be given to the subject here;
but there is a startling significance in what it shows of the
increase of pauperism and of the public cost of poor relief in
late years.
It appears from the returns of the Local Government Board that
the mean number of paupers in 1906, 1907 and 1908, was at a
higher level than it had been for 31 previous years.
Excluding, however, these three especially bad years, it is
found that throughout the period 1896-1906 there were 24,000
more paupers than in the period 1888-1896, and 7000 more than
in the period 1880-1888. In discussing the report the London
_Times_ remarks: "Further examination even diminishes the
meagre consolation these figures afford as to the results of a
generation of effort at reducing pauperism. Comparing the
period 1896-1906 with 1871-1880, there has been a decrease of
3.9 per cent. in the total number of paupers, but this
decrease has been accompanied by a large increase of male
pauperism and is due entirely to the large decrease in the
number of children, whose numbers have decreased by 18 per
cent., and a small reduction in the number of women, whose
numbers have increased by 2 per cent. The decrease in these
two classes so affects the total as entirely to conceal an
absolute increase of 18 per cent, in the number of male
paupers. Even in regard to the children, at any rate during
the last 15 years, the decrease has been almost wholly in
rural unions, and in the children of widows, and there has
been a general increase in the number of children of
able-bodied men.
"Further, so far as figures are available, they show a greater
proportionate increase in the number of paupers during the
working years of life than in the very young or the very old.
Taking only the able-bodied in health, we find that in the
period 1896-1906 in metropolitan unions the indoor paupers
have increased by 38 per cent. and the outdoor by 137 per
cent.; in urban unions the indoor by 24 per cent. and the
outdoor by 133 per cent.; and in the whole of England and
Wales the indoor by 21 per cent. and the outdoor by 49 per
cent. In London alone 15,800 more paupers are being maintained
than in the eighties, and the rate per 1,000 of the
population, which used to be below that for England and Wales,
has risen above it."
As for expenditure, it was some £8,000,000 in the year
1871-1872, and £14,000,000 in the year 1905-1906. Summing up
the general situation with regard to this expenditure, the
Commission says: "We find that, whilst the expenditure per
inhabitant has increased from 7s. ¼d. to 8s. 2£d. since
1871-1872, and is only 7£d. less than it was in 1834, the
expenditure per pauper has increased from £7 12s. 1d. to £15
12s. 6d. in the same period. The country is maintaining a
multitude of paupers not far short of the numbers maintained
in 1871-1902, and is spending more than double the amount upon
each individual. The increased expenditure has done little
towards diminishing the extent of pauperism. Such advance as
the nation has made has been accomplished at an enormous cost,
and absorbs an annual amount which is now equivalent to nearly
one-half of the present expenditure upon the Army. It may be
urged that the rate of pauperism has diminished from 31.2 per
1,000 in 1871-1879 to 22.2 per 1,000 in 1896-1905, and this is
certainly a matter for congratulation, but it has been the
result of the large increase in the population rather than of
any considerable reduction in the number of paupers."
{512}
This discouraging result has occurred notwithstanding the fact
that the nation is spending £20,000,000 more in education than
in 1831, and £13,000,000 more in sanitation and the prevention
of disease than in 1841; notwithstanding the fact "that money
wages in the nineties were 10 per cent. above those of the
eighties, and 30 per cent, above those of the sixties," and
notwithstanding the fact that "there has been a considerable
flow of the working classes from the lower paid occupations to
the higher paid industries."
The recommendations of the Commission include a scheme for a
permanent system of public assistance for the able-bodied,
which contemplates the establishment in every district of four
coöperating organizations:
(a) An organization for insurance against unemployment, to
develop and secure (with contributions from public funds) the
greatest possible benefits to the workmen from coöperative
insurance against unemployment;
(b) a labor exchange established and maintained by the Board
of Trade to provide efficient machinery for putting those
requiring work and those requiring workers into prompt
communication;
(c) a voluntary aid committee to give advice and aid out of
voluntary funds especially to the better class of workmen
reduced to want through unemployment;
(d) a public assistance authority representing the county or
county borough and acting locally through a public assistance
committee to assist necessitous workmen under specified
conditions at the public expense. The report adds that it must
be a fundamental principle of the system of public assistance
that the responsibility for the due and effective assistance
of all necessitous persons at the public expense shall be in
the hands of one, and only one, authority in each county and
county borough—viz., the public assistance authority.
POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT:
Small Holdings Act of Great Britain.
See (in this Volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1907-1908.
POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT:
Starvation Poverty in India.
See (in this Volume)
INDIA: A. D. 1905-1908.
POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT:
Underfed School Children:
Provision for Meals to them.
How it is done in Various Cities.
In March, 1905, the British Foreign Office undertook, at the
request of the Board of Education, to obtain information
regarding the methods adopted in the great Continental and
American cities for dealing with ill-fed school children. The
facts collected were tabulated and published subsequently in a
Parliamentary Paper (Cd. 2926-1906) from which the following
statements are derived:
Generally, in the larger cities of Western Europe, some system
was found to be in operation for feeding ill-fed children in
the schools. Commonly this is conducted unofficially, by
private charitable organizations, but sometimes in indirect
connection with the municipality, and frequently with help
from municipal funds. In Berlin, however, the municipality
takes on itself the responsibility of not only feeding but
clothing properly the necessitous children attending its
elementary schools. This made one of the functions of a
municipal department, the Städtisrhe Schuldeputation, which is
assisted by a "Society for Feeding Poor Children" in the
supplying of meals at the elementary school buildings of the
city. The committee which conducts the work of that auxiliary
society is appointed by the Government. As a rule, breakfasts
only are given in Berlin, and only during the winter months;
but four meals are supplied to such children as are thought by
the head-masters of the schools to require them. No steps are
taken to collect from parents any part of the cost of meals
furnished in the schools.
In Paris the organization which installs and conducts cantines
scolaires in schools belonging to the city, called the
_Caisse des Écoles,_ is privately constituted, but
presided over by the mayor. This connects it with the
municipality, and in 1905 it had been receiving a municipal
subvention of 1,000,000 francs yearly for three years, but
this was not to be depended on as a permanent grant. It was
necessary for the _Caisse des Écoles_ to seek voluntary
contributions. The City, however, undertakes to supply the
necessary accommodations and all utensils for the school
canteens, which are in operation throughout the year, every
day of the week, but generally for a noon meal only; though
soup is distributed in some arrondissements at the opening and
closing of school. All children are entitled to feed at the
canteen, but the meals are supplied gratis only to the
children of poor families. The others pay a small sum which
does not exceed 15 centimes (about 2 cents). In 1904 the total
cost of meals furnished at the school canteens was 1,461,305
francs, of which 359,093 francs was paid by parents, who buy
tickets for the purpose. All meals are supplied on the
presentation of tickets, and nothing shows whether the tickets
have been bought or received as gifts.
In Vienna meals for poor school children are provided by a
central Association, indirectly connected with the
municipality, the Burgomaster being its president, and
financial assistance being given to it from both imperial and
municipal funds. Dinners only are provided, on every week day
from November 16 to March 31, partly in the school buildings,
partly in certain restaurants and kitchens. As in Paris,
parents can buy tickets for these meals, but it is said to be
rarely done. The total cost is about $23,000 per year. Once a
year, in the autumn, the Association makes an appeal for
funds, and all classes of people respond, the Emperor giving
4,000 crowns and the Town Council voting 8,000.
Information on the subject was obtained by the British Foreign
Office from thirty-eight cities, in all, of Austria, Belgium,
Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Norway, Sweden,
Spain, Switzerland, and the United States. Some systematic
provision, more or less adequate, for securing proper food to
the children of the schools by private or public organization,
was reported from more than thirty. The reports from New York,
Philadelphia, and Chicago, in the United States, showed less
undertakings in this direction than in any other cities of
considerable size.
{513}
POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: In England:
Provision of Meals Act.
An order from the English Local Government Board on the
subject of providing food for underfed school children was
published on the 29th of April, 1905. It applied only to
children under sixteen who were neither blind, deaf or dumb,
and who were living with a father not in receipt of relief.
Application in each case must be made by school managers, or
by a teacher empowered by the managers, or by an officer
empowered by the education authorities. The relief might be
granted in the ordinary way or as a loan, the father being
allowed the opportunity of making the needful provision
himself. If he failed to do so, the poor-law guardians were
empowered to make it and to recover the cost, as if it were a
loan. In no case could the relief be given in money, or
continued on a single application for more than a month. Where
possible, arrangements should be made with local charitable
organizations for the issue of tickets for meals.
The above mentioned tentative order was followed, in the next
year, by the passage of an Act which authorizes any "local
education authority" in England and Wales to "take such steps
as they think fit for the provision of meals for children" at
any public elementary school, and for that purpose to
"associate with themselves any committee on which the
authority are represented, who will undertake to provide food
for those children." Such education authority may aid the
committee by furnishing necessary land, buildings, furniture
and apparatus, and necessary officers and servants; but, "save
as hereinafter provided, the authority shall not incur any
expense in respect of the purchase of food to be supplied at
such meals."
POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: Unemployment: Belgium: A. D. 1900-1904.
Municipal Organizations of Insurance against Unemployment.
The Ghent System.
The following is abridged from a report on "Agencies and
Methods for Dealing with the Unemployed in certain Foreign
Countries," made to the British Board of Trade, in 1904, by
Mr. David F. Schloss:
During the last few years the Public Authorities of certain
Belgian towns and Provinces have organised a system, to which
the name of Insurance against Unemployment is given, and under
which the efforts of workmen to secure for themselves the
means of tiding over periods of unemployment are assisted by
the grant of subsidies provided out of public moneys, which
form a supplement to the sums derived from the contributions
of these work-people. This system is now in force at Ghent,
Brussels, Antwerp, Bruges, Liege, Malines, and Louvain, and in
the Provinces of Liege and Antwerp. In details it has been
varied somewhat in different places, but the general scheme is
the same, and it will be sufficient to give some account of it
as organized in Ghent, where it was first worked out.
The Unemployed Fund at Ghent was initiated as the result of
the recommendations made by a Special Commission on the
question of unemployment, which on April 10, 1900, presented a
Report, advising the creation of a Municipal Unemployed Fund
under the conditions specified in a set of rules, which they
submitted for consideration. The annual subvention to the Fund
by the City was fixed, for three years, at $4000. Expenses of
the administration of the Fund to be borne by the City.
Administration of the Fund to be entrusted to a committee of
ten citizens named by the municipal authority, but one half of
whom must be members of those organizations of workmen which
affiliate themselves with the Fund. The Fund may be augmented
by subscriptions, donations, moneys collected by fêtes, etc.
"The intervention of the Special Fund shall consist either
(_a_.) in providing a supplement to sums paid to their
members as unemployed benefit by workmen’s organisations, or
(_b_.) in supplementing any provision made by individual
thrift for the specific case of unemployment. The Special Fund
will supplement the unemployed benefits paid by workmen's
organisations by the payment of a subsidy, which may be equal
to, but shall not be greater than, the amount of such
benefits."
"Strikes and lock-outs, or the results attendant upon such
disputes, sickness and physical incapacity for labour shall in
no case give rise to the payment of an indemnity out of the
monies of the Unemployed Fund."
"All workmen’s organisations desiring that their members shall
participate in the subsidies provided by the Fund will be
required to send in each month a return showing the number and
amount of all payments on account of benefits made by them,
and to furnish every year their balance-sheet, also their
rules and regulations."
"Workmen not being members of any Trade Union which enjoys
participation in the Fund, are at liberty to join a Thrift
Fund specifically constituted to meet the case of
unemployment." By this rule, it will be seen, the scheme
provides, under distinct branches, for Trade Unionists and
non-Unionists.
POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: England: A. D. 1905-1909.
Unemployed Workmen Act, and its operation.
In the summer of 1905 a Bill brought into Parliament by the
President of the Local Government Board, to provide for an
organization to assist unemployed workmen, was carried through
both houses with little opposition. It sought to bring about a
careful discrimination between workmen who were accustomed to
regular employment in ordinary circumstances, but temporarily
unemployed through circumstances beyond their control, and the
needy, on the other hand, who were proper objects of ordinary
Poor Law relief. Its provisions were for the former entirely,
and their purpose was to establish both local and central
bodies, which should organize and maintain labor exchanges and
employment bureaus, assist migration and emigration, and
acquire, equip, and maintain farm colonies; the latter to
operate continuously, for the training of persons to
agricultural pursuits, preparing them for emigration or for
permanent transfer from city to country life. The local bodies
contemplated were not empowered to provide work at public
expense. That power was entrusted discretionally to the
central bodies, which could draw on the rates for the purpose
to a limited extent. Voluntary contributions were to be looked
to in part for the necessary funds. The measure was decidedly
conservative and tentative.
A report on the applications for relief and the relief given
in England and Wales under this Act during the year ending
March 81, 1909, compared with the previous year, shows as
follows: The total number of applications received was
196,757, of which 49,239 were made to 29 committees in London,
and 147,518 to 95 committees in other parts of the country.
{514}
The applicants belonging to the general or casual labour class
(64,773) formed as in previous years by far the largest
section—47.4 per cent.—of the whole number. The building trade
ranked second with 23,047, or 16.9 per cent. of the total. The
engineering, shipbuilding, and metal trades accounted for
17,028, or 12.5 per cent., as compared with only 8.6 per cent,
in the previous year.
A Bill known as the "Right to Work" Bill came before the House
of Commons in April, 1909, with the endorsement of the trade
unions and the Labor Party. It was opposed by John Burns, the
former labor leader, but now speaking as President of the
Local Government Board and member of the Cabinet, who said:
"For three and a half years he had had intimate experience of
relief works, and he could not exaggerate the degradation of
the workmen, the demoralization of the honest labourer, the
extent to which money had been wasted and character impaired
by the relief works which he had had in the name of Parliament
to administer. Any member had only to take up the report of
any one of the distress committees to see that what the
minority report said had happened would increasingly happen so
long as these means of meeting unemployment were resorted to.
The amount of work would be disproportionate to the wages
paid, the wrong men would get the right work, and the best men
would be excluded, because modesty was a characteristic of
good workmanship and craftsmanship, and the worst men were
always in the front line when relief works were set on foot."
POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: A. D. 1909.
Report of a Royal Commission.
The Royal Commission on the working of the English Poor Laws,
whose general report is referred to above, issued, in
September, 1909, a supplementary report on Unemployment. The
main ultimate conclusions of the Commission are the following:
"When we consider the remedies proposed for unemployment we
are convinced that they do not lie on the lines proposed by
the Unemployed Workmen’s Act, which has done nothing but
systematize Relief Works. These, whether national or
municipal, appear to us merely to intensify the evil as far as
the ordinary workmen are concerned. The great thing necessary,
we believe, is to obtain a general agreement as to the need of
regularizing labour. In this the Government and municipalities
ought to set a good example.
"It might be better, if any rate or State funds are to be
spent on the unemployed, that such aid should take the form of
supplementing trade union funds and give thereby a bonus on
thrift. Any such supplementation of trade union funds would
involve a Local Government Board audit, the control of the
expenses of management, and a separation of the war and
benefit funds. It is very doubtful whether it would be wise
for trade unions to accept State aid if it involved loss of
independence and an interference with their efforts to improve
wages. There is little doubt, however, that grants of this
kind would enormously increase their membership.
"In order to prevent the spread of the unemployed as a class
it is probable that drastic measures ought to be taken, such
as those recommended to check vagrancy. For the idle and
worthless who now form the noisy section of the unemployed it
might be necessary to establish semi-penal colonies. …
"The solution lies in a better organization of the workers and
more consideration from the employers. Better organization of
industry might at once relieve the workers and render trade
crises less acute by steadying the supply of labour.
"Differentiation of the unemployable from the willing workers
and better classification of paupers would enable us to
understand the extent of the problem and how far
reorganization of labour must be carried. Raising the
condition of the whole working class by better housing and
better wages will help to keep decent but unskilled workmen
from sinking.
"Every effort must be made to cut off the supply of unskilled
and unintelligent labour by training boys to enter regular and
permanent work."
POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: ENGLAND: A. D. 1909.
The Labor Exchanges Act.
One of the most important of the recent enactments of the
British Parliament is the Labor Exchanges Act, which
encountered no serious opposition in either House. On
introducing the Bill in the House of Commons, May 19, 1909,
and in subsequent debate, Mr. Winston Churchill, President of
the Board of Trade, gave explanations of which the following
is a summary: It would divide the country into ten districts,
which would have among them between 30 and 40 first-class
labour exchanges, 45 second-class, and about 150 third-class
for the smaller centres. The central control would be
exercised by the Board of Trade, but it is intended that,
following the German example, there shall be in each principal
centre a local advisory committee composed of representatives
of workmen and of employers in equal numbers, with a permanent
official as chairman. It is hoped that, when permanent
buildings are secured, and the whole scheme is in working
order, the labour exchanges will become centres of industrial
life, in which employers and employed will learn to know one
another better, and to discuss in common questions now too
much regarded from different standpoints. These exchanges
cannot make work, they can only distribute what work is to be
had. They can hardly be expected to make head against the
large fluctuations of trade, which must be met by some
insurance scheme, which Mr. Churchill announced as being under
contemplation. But there are many irregularities of
distribution which labour exchanges can correct, and many
seasonal fluctuations producing much distress which they can
deal with to the great advantage alike of employers and
employed.
It was not contemplated that fees should be charged to men
applying to the labour bureaux, which were to be national
institutions. They would strive to find men for jobs and jobs
for men, and attention would be paid to the interests of the
men who had been waiting longest for work. For the present
domestic servants would not be brought within the operation of
the Bill. No compulsion would be exercised to induce
applicants to give evidence as to character, but of course a
man would have a greater chance of obtaining work if he could
give references and testimonials. In a strike the exchanges
would be absolutely neutral as between capital and labour, and
it would be clearly notified to all working men that there was
a dispute and they would be left to act as they thought fit.
{515}
The Bill became law in September. A highly favorable report of
its operation was made six months later by the Consul-General
of the United States at London, who stated that "on the
opening day nearly eighty exchanges were in operation and
thousands of applications for work were received. The
applicants mainly represented the better class of labor. On
the first day of the opening in Nottingham 557 workers and 120
employing firms registered. These were followed on the second
day by 580 workers and 87 firms. One of the employers alone
applied for sixty skilled hands, and though most of the
skilled hands were placed, the registered firms were not able
to fill all their vacancies."
POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: Germany: A. D. 1909.
Experiments of Insurance.
Representatives from the municipal authorities of fifteen
German cities held a joint conference at Cologne in September,
1909, to discuss the best methods of combating unemployment.
One or two speakers advocated compulsory insurance against
unemployment; but the divergencies of opinion were so wide
that no conclusion was reached. Annual conferences on the
subject are to be held. A Press correspondent who reported the
meeting remarked that it confirms "the German official view
that the problem of insurance against unemployment is not ripe
for systematic solution. Upon the strength of the experience,
for example, of Strassburg and of Frankfurt, where the Ghent
system of subsidies is in operation, demands are frequently
made for the inauguration of an Imperial system of insurance.
Apart, however, from the fact that other problems—especially
widows and orphans insurance—have precedence, the Government
maintains that Imperial legislation is impossible because no
satisfactory scheme has been discovered."
Some account of the Ghent system, here referred to, will be
found above, under the subheading Belgium. Besides the German
cities mentioned as having introduced that measure of
insurance against unemployment, Cologne and Leipsic have been
operating an organization of similar insurance for some years.
As described in a report made in 1904 to the British Board of
Trade by Mr. David F. Schloss, on "Agencies and Methods for
Dealing with the Unemployed in certain Foreign Countries," the
organization in Cologne is as follows:
"The ‘City of Cologne Office for Insurance against
Unemployment in Winter’ was established in 1896. The object of
the Office is to provide, with the assistance of the Cologne
Labour Registry, an insurance against Unemployment during the
winter (December to March) for the benefit of male workpeople
in the Cologne district. In order to insure with the Office, a
man must be at least 18 years of age, must have lived for at
least a year in Cologne, and must not suffer from permanent
incapacity to work. He is required to pay a weekly premium,
payment of which must commence as from April 1, and must
continue for 34 weeks. The amount of the premium was
originally 3d. per week for both skilled and unskilled
workmen; in 1901 the rate of premium was fixed at 3d. for
unskilled and 4½d. for skilled men; in 1903 the rate was
raised to 3½d. per week for unskilled and 4¾d. per week for
skilled workmen. …
"In return for these payments the insured workman, if and when
out of work in the period named above, receives, for not more
than eight weeks in all, a daily amount, which is 2s. for each
of the first 20 days (nothing being paid for Sundays), and
then 1s. on each subsequent day. These payments begin on the
third weekday after the date on which the man has reported
himself as out of work. …
"No money is paid in respect of unemployment caused by illness
or infirmity, or by the man’s own fault, or by a trade
dispute."
At Leipsic the institution of insurance against unemployment
is on much the same lines, but differing in some details of
its rules. "The Leipsic Insurance Office was founded in April,
1903, with a guarantee fund of about £5000, provided by
benevolent persons, in addition to which it proposed to
receive annual subscriptions from members of the public. The
town authorities granted accommodation for the Office rent
free for three years. The system adopted was as follows: The
right to insure with this Office is confined to men of 16 but
not over 60 years of age, who have lived at Leipsic for at
least two years; the general meeting may, however, allow
residents in the suburbs of Leipsic to insure."
POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT:
Employers’ Labor Exchanges.
The Collieries Union, of colliery owners, in the Rhenish
Westphalian coal district, was reported, in October, 1909, to
have "decided to institute for the benefit of its members a
system of centralized labour exchanges modelled upon the
system which has existed for many years in the Hamburg iron
industry. The principal objects in view are to secure a steady
supply of permanent labour, to equalize a possible surplus of
labour in certain districts and a corresponding deficit in
others, and to prevent the habit on the part of miners of
applying for employment at several collieries simultaneously.
On the other hand, it is hoped that miners will be spared the
frequently fruitless search for work."
----------POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT: End--------
PRAIRIE OIL AND GAS COMPANY.
See (in this Volume)
COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL, &C.:
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1904-1909.
PREFERENTIAL TRADE:
Discussed at the Imperial Conferences of 1902 and 1907
in London.
See (in this Volume)
BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1902 and 1907.
PRESS, The:
Revived Censorship in Russia.
See (in this Volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1909.
PRESS CONFERENCE, The British Imperial.
See (in this Volume)
BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1909 (JUNE).
PRETORIA:
Peace Negotiations.
See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1901-1902.
PREVENTION OF CORRUPTION ACT.
See (in this Volume)
CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY.
PREVENTION OF CRIMES ACT, BRITISH.
See (in this Volume)
CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY.
PRIMARY, DIRECT.
See (in this Volume)
ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: UNITED STATES.
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND: A. D. 1901-1902.
Census.
Reduced Representation in Parliament.
See (in this Volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1901-1902.
PRITCHETT, Henry S.:
President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement
of Teaching.
See (in this Volume)
EDUCATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1905-1908.
{516}
PRIZE COURT, CONTEMPLATED INTERNATIONAL.
See (in this Volume)
WAR, THE REVOLT AGAINST: A. D. 1907
(appended to account of Second Peace Conference
at The Hague).
PROBATION SYSTEM, THE.
See (in this Volume)
CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY: PROBATION.
PROBLEMS OF THE TIME:
Of Crime.
See (in this Volume)
CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY.
PROBLEMS OF THE TIME:
Of the Intoxicants.
See (in this Volume)
PROBLEMS OF THE TIME:
Of Labor and Capital.
See (in this Volume)
LABOR ORGANIZATION, LABOR PROTECTION,
AND LABOR REMUNERATION.
PROBLEMS OF THE TIME:
Of Municipal Government.
See (in this Volume)
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.
PROBLEMS OF THE TIME:
Of Poverty and Unemployment.
See (in this Volume)
POVERTY.
PROBLEMS OF THE TIME:
Of Race.
See (in this Volume)
RACE PROBLEMS.
PROBLEMS OF THE TIME:
Of Railway Regulation.
See (in this Volume)
RAILWAYS.
PROBLEMS OF THE TIME:
Of the Trusts (so-called).
See (in this Volume)
COMBINATIONS, INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL.
PROBLEMS OF THE TIME:
Of War and Peace.
See (in this Volume)
WAR: PREPARATIONS FOR, AND REVOLT AGAINST.
PROBLEMS OF THE TIME:
Of Wealth.
See (in this Volume)
WEALTH.
PROFIT-SHARING.
See (in this Volume)
LABOR REMUNERATION.
PROGRESISTAS.
See (in this Volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1907; also
PORTUGAL: A. D. 1906-1909.
PROGRESSIVES.
See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1902-1904.
PROHIBITION.
See (in this Volume)
ALCOHOL PROBLEM.
PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION.
See (in this Volume)
ELECTIVE FRANCHISE.
PROTECTION, THE NEW.
See (in this Volume)
LABOR REMUNERATION: THE NEW PROTECTION.
PROTECTORATES, SOUTH AFRICAN.
See (in this Volume)
SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1909.
PRUSSIA: A. D. 1902.
Measures for Germanizing the Polish Provinces.
See (in this Volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1902 (March-May), and 1908 (January).
PRUSSIA: A. D. 1904.
Denominational Education restored.
See (in this Volume)
EDUCATION: PRUSSIA: A. D. 1904.
PRUSSIA: A. D. 1905.
Creation of a Government Bureau of Charities.
See (in this Volume)
SOCIAL BETTERMENT: PRUSSIA.
PRUSSIA: A. D. 1906.
Defiance of Popular Demands for Suffrage Reform.
See (in this Volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1906-1907.
PRUSSIA: A. D. 1906.
A Comedy of Election Reform.
See (in this Volume)
ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: GERMANY: A. D. 1906.
PRUSSIA: A. D. 1907.
Statistics of Population.
Birth Rate and Death Rate.
See (in this Volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1907.
PRUSSIA: A. D. 1908.
Disappointing Statement by Prince Bülow about Suffrage Reform.
Socialist Successes.
A surprising word from the King.
In January, Prince Bülow, as Minister-President of Prussia,
made a statement about suffrage reform which deeply
disappointed all friends of that movement. It was therefore
expected, when the Diet elections approached in June, that the
Prussian people would be awakened by a violent agitation in
favor of more liberal election laws, but nothing of the kind
happened. The Socialists, indeed, made this their chief issue,
and they carried a half-dozen districts, thus securing for the
first time a foothold in the Diet; and the Radicals, too, gave
out manhood suffrage as their watchword, but pressed it so
feebly as to awaken the suspicion that their demand was not
seriously meant.
"Nevertheless, the King’s speech from the throne in October
surprised the country by announcing that a reform of the
election laws was a fundamental necessity and would be
undertaken during the present session. This announcement
affected the country-squire element like tapping on a hornet’s
nest. The Conservative party immediately gave it to be plainly
understood that it would brook no tampering with the election
laws, the stronghold of its power."
_W. C. Dreher,
The Year in Germany
(Atlantic Monthly, January, 1909)_.
PRUSSIA: A. D. 1908 (January).
More vigorous Germanizing of the Polish Provinces.
See (in this Volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1908.
PRUSSIA: A. D. 1909-1910.
Rejection of proposed Reforms of the Elective Franchise.
The Offensive Bill of the following year.
See (in this Volume)
ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: PRUSSIA.
----------PUBLIC HEALTH: Start--------
PUBLIC HEALTH: AMERICA: A. D. 1901-1902.
Proposals of the Second International Conference of
American Republics.
See (in this Volume)
AMERICAN REPUBLICS.
PUBLIC HEALTH: Army Sanitation:
By the Japanese.
See (in this Volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1904-1905—at the end.
PUBLIC HEALTH: BUBONIC PLAGUE:
In India.
The bubonic plague, which began to terrorize the eastern
world, especially India, in the late years of the last century
(see PLAGUE, in Volume VI.), showed signs of abating in India
in 1900, but regained virulence in the following years, the
mortality from it in all India rising to about 560,000 in
1902, exceeding 842,000 in 1903, going beyond a million in
1904, and rising to 1,125,652 in the year from October 1,
1904, to September 30, 1905. Its worst ravages were in the
Presidency of Bombay and in the Punjab. In the Bombay
Presidency the victims of 1903 numbered 343,904; in the Punjab
they counted 210,493.
See (in this Volume)
PUBLIC HEALTH: INDIA.
PUBLIC HEALTH: BUBONIC PLAGUE:
In the Philippines: How it was stamped out.
Full accounts of the successful campaign against bubonic
plague in the Philippines, in 1900-1902, are given in the
annual reports of the Philippine Commission. From that source
the main facts were summarized in the May number of the
National Geographic Magazine, 1903, as follows:
Bubonic plague was discovered at Manila on December 26, 1899,
and slowly but steadily increased in its ravages up to
December, 1901. "The deaths in 1900 numbered 199, and in 1901
reached a total of 432. The disease was at its worst each year
during the hot, dry months of March, April, and May, nearly or
quite disappearing during September, October, November, and
December. …
{517}
"On account of the important part which house rats are known
to play in the distribution of bubonic plague, a systematic
campaign was inaugurated against these rodents in Manila.
Policemen, sanitary inspectors, and specially appointed
rat-catchers were furnished with traps and poison, and both
traps and poison were distributed to private individuals under
proper restrictions. A bounty was paid for all rats turned
over to the health authorities, and stations were established
at convenient points throughout the city where they could be
received. Each rat was tagged with the street and number of
the building or lot from which it came, was dropped into a
strong antiseptic solution, and eventually sent to the
Biological Laboratory, where it was subjected to a
bacteriological examination for plague. During the first two
weeks, 1.8 per cent. of the rats examined were found to be
infected. This proportion steadily increased, reaching the
alarming maximum of 2.3 per cent. in October. At this time
numerous rats were found dead of plague in the infected
districts, and, in view of the fact that epidemics of plague
among the rats of a city in the past have been uniformly
followed by epidemics among human beings, the gravest
apprehension was felt, the rapid spread of the disease among
the rats after the weather had become comparatively dry being
a particularly unfavorable symptom.
"It was deemed necessary to prepare to deal with a severe
epidemic, and a permanent detention camp, capable of
accommodating fifteen hundred persons, was accordingly
established on the grounds of the San Lazaro Hospital. Hoping
against hope, the board of health redoubled its efforts to
combat the disease. The force of sanitary inspectors was
greatly increased, and under the able supervision of Dr.
Meacham their work was brought to a high degree of efficiency.
Frequent house-to-house inspections were made in all parts of
the city where the disease was known to exist. The sick were
removed to the hospital if practicable; otherwise they were
cared for where found and the spread of infection guarded
against.
"Plague houses were thoroughly disinfected, and their owners
were compelled, under the direction of the assistant sanitary
engineer, to make necessary alterations. Cement ground-floors
were laid; double walls and double ceilings, affording a
refuge for rats, were removed; defects in plumbing were
remedied; whitewash was liberally used, and, in general,
nothing was left undone that could render buildings where
plague had occurred safe for human occupancy. Buildings
incapable of thorough disinfection and renovation were
destroyed. Buildings in which plague rats were taken were
treated exactly as were those where the disease attacked the
human occupants. The bacteriological examination of rats
enabled the board of health to follow the pest into its most
secret haunts and fight it there, and was the most important
factor in the winning of the great success which was
ultimately achieved.
"With very few exceptions, there was no recurrence of plague
in buildings which had been disinfected and renovated. As
center after center of infection was found and destroyed, the
percentage of diseased rats began to decrease, and in January,
1902, when, judging from the history of previous years, plague
should have again begun to spread among human beings, there
was not a single case. In February, one case occurred. In
March, there were two cases, as against 63 in March of the
preceding year, and before April the disease had completely
disappeared. This result, brought about at a time when the
epidemic would, if unchecked, have reached its height for the
year, marked the end of a fight begun by the board of health
on the day of its organization and prosecuted unremittingly
under adverse conditions for seven months, with a degree of
success which has not been equaled under similar conditions in
the history of bubonic plague.
"During 1901, plague appeared at several points in the
provinces near Manila. Agents of the board of health were
promptly dispatched to the infected municipalities, and
radical remedial measures were adopted, including, in several
instances, the burning of infected buildings, the result being
the complete disappearance of plague in the provinces as well
as in Manila."
PUBLIC HEALTH: CANCER RESEARCH:
Mr. Barnato’s Bequest.
"We are reminded to-day that the late Mr. Harry Barnato
bequeathed a sum of money amounting to a quarter of a million
sterling for the establishment of a charity in memory of his
brother, Mr. Barney Barnato, and of his nephew, Mr. Woolf
Joel, both of whom died before him. We are now officially
informed that the trustees under Mr. Harry Barnato’s will have
determined to apply the bequest to the building and endowment
of an institution for the reception of cancer patients, and to
place its management under the control of the authorities of
the Middlesex Hospital, where special wards for cancer
patients have long been in operation, and where much has been
done in devising means for the alleviation of their
sufferings."
_London Times,
August 9, 1909._
Mr. George Crocker, of California, who died in December, 1909,
bequeathed a fund amounting to about $1,500,000 to Columbia
University for the prosecution of researches into the cause,
prevention, and cure of cancer. Mr. Crocker, his wife, and his
father, Charles Crocker of California, all died of the
disease. Mr. Crocker had given $50,000 to Columbia for the
same purpose before his death. Mr. Crocker provided that,
should a cure for the disease be discovered, the money should
be devoted to other medical investigations, "with a view to
preventing and curing diseases and alleviating human
suffering." He stipulated further that no part of the fund
should be used for the erection of a building.
{518}
PUBLIC HEALTH:
The Committee of One Hundred.
Movement for a National Department or Bureau of Health.
A convincing paper read by Professor J. P. Norton, of Yale,
before the economic section of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science at its meeting in 1906, on the
economic advisability of a national regulation of public
health, led to the formation in 1907 of the Committee of One
Hundred, which has labored since that time to bring about the
creation of a Department or a Bureau of Public Health in the
Federal administration of Government. Under the presidency of
Mr. Irving Fisher, and with Mr. Edward T. Devine for its
secretary, the Committee, which includes many of the most
eminent men and women in the country, has awakened wide
interest in the proposition, enlisting a public support which
seems certain to give it success. When the subject came under
discussion in the American Association for the Advancement of
Science at its meeting of 1908, Professor William H. Welch,
the retiring President of the Association, described the
existing neglect of health as shameful, and pointed out that,
if existing hygienic knowledge were fully applied, the death
rate might be cut in two. As examples of what a Federal Health
Bureau might do he cited the work of Pasteur and Koch, whose
best work was done for the national governments of France and
Germany, though the benefits have been shared by all nations.
In America we lack even the statistics of disease except in a
limited area.
In his Message to Congress, December 6, 1909, President Taft
urged the institution of the proposed National Bureau of
Health very cogently, in these words: "For a very considerable
period a movement has been gathering strength, especially
among the members of the medical profession, in favor of a
concentration of the instruments of the national government,
which have to do with the promotion of public health. In the
nature of things, the Medical Department of the army and the
Medical Department of the navy must be kept separate. But
there seems to be no reason why all the other bureaus and
offices in the general government which have to do with the
public health or subjects akin thereto should not be united in
a bureau to be called the ‘Bureau of Public Health.’ This
would necessitate the transfer of the Marine Hospital Service
to such a bureau. I am aware that there is a wide field in
respect to the public health committed to the States in which
the Federal government cannot exercise jurisdiction, but we
have seen in the Agricultural Department the expansion into
widest usefulness of a department giving attention to
agriculture when that subject is plainly one over which the
States properly exercise direct jurisdiction. The
opportunities offered for useful research and the spread of
useful information in regard to the cultivation of the soil
and the breeding of stock and the solution of many of the
intricate problems in progressive agriculture have
demonstrated the wisdom of establishing that department.
Similar reasons, of equal force, can be given for the
establishment of a bureau of health that shall not only
exercise the police jurisdiction of the Federal government
respecting quarantine, but which shall also afford an
opportunity for investigation and research by competent
experts into questions of health affecting the whole country,
or important sections thereof, questions which, in the absence
of Federal governmental work, are not likely to be promptly
solved."
PUBLIC HEALTH:
The Hookworm Disease in the United States.
"In the Old World, hookworm disease was probably known to the
Egyptians nearly three thousand five hundred years ago, but
its cause was not understood until about the middle of the
nineteenth century, when it was shown to be due to an
intestinal parasite, _Agchylostoma duodenale._ Until 1893
no authentic cases of this disease were recognized as such in
the United States, but between 1893 and 1902 about 35 cases
were diagnosed. In 1902 it was shown that a distinct hookworm,
_Ucinaria americana,_ infests man in this country, and
this indicated very strongly that the disease must be present
although not generally recognized. It is now established that
in addition to the few cases of Old World hookworm disease
imported into the United States we have in the South an
endemic uncinariasis due to a distinct cause, _Uncinaria
americana._ This disease has been known for years in the
South and can be traced in medical writings as far back as
1808, but its nature was not understood. Some cases have been
confused with malaria, others have been attributed to
dirt-eating.
"The hookworms are about half an inch long. They live in the
small intestine, where they suck blood, produce minute
hemorrhages, and in all probability also produce a substance
which acts as a poison. They lay eggs which cannot develop to
maturity in the intestine. These ova escape with the feces and
hatch in about twenty-four hours; the young worm sheds its
skin twice and then is ready to infect man. Infection takes
place through the mouth, either by the hands soiled with
larvae or by infected food. Infection through the drinking
water may possibly occur. Finally, the larvae may enter the
body through the skin and eventually reach the small
intestine.
"Patients may be divided into light cases, in which the
symptoms are very obscure; medium cases, in which the anemia
is more or less marked, and severe cases, represented by the
dwarfed, edematous, anemic dirt-eater. Infection occurs
chiefly in rural sand districts. … Economically, uncinariasis
is very important. It keeps children from school, decreases
capacity for both physical and mental labor, and is one of the
most important factors in determining the present condition of
the poorer whites of the sand and pine districts of the South.
"The disease is carried from the farms to the cotton mills by
the mill hands, but does not spread much in the mills;
nevertheless, it causes a considerable amount of anemia among
the operatives."-
_Ch. Wardell Stiles, Ph. D.,
Report upon the Prevalence and Geographic Distribution
of Hookworm Disease
(Public Health and Marine Hospital Service of the
United States: Hygienic Laboratory, Bulletin No. 10)._
In the autumn of 1909 Mr. John D. Rockefeller placed a fund of
$1,000,000 under the control of a Commission, to be used for
the eradication of the hookworm disease in the United States.
The fund is allotted in annual instalments of $200,000 each.
PUBLIC HEALTH: India: A. D. 1907-1908.
Mortality Statistics and Birth Rate.
According to statistics given in the "Statement Exhibiting the
Moral and Material Progress and Condition of India during the
year 1907-1908," in most provinces the birth-rates exceeded the
death-rates, but in the Punjab the death-rate exceeded the
birth-rate by no less than 21.3 per mille, mainly as a result
of the persistence of plague and the unusual prevalence of
other epidemics. The total number of deaths registered in the
Dependency was 8,399,623, compared with 7,852,330 in 1906.
This constituted a rise of the rate from 34.73 per mille to
37.18. The mean mortality per 1,000 for the quinquennium
ending 1906 was 33.96. The rate in the Punjab was no less than
62.1.
{519}
Throughout the country as a whole cholera was responsible for
1.81 deaths per mille, smallpox for 0.46, fevers for 19.76,
dysentery and diarrhoea for 1.25, and plague for 5.16. In the
previous year (1906) there was a most welcome decline in the
plague death-rate, which fell from 4.17 in 1905 to 1.33. But
in the year under review this malignant disease (which first
appeared in Bombay in 1896) was responsible for the record
number of 1,315,892 deaths. Happily in 1908 there was again a
very rapid decline of mortality, and the preliminary figures
for the year give a total of less than 150,000 deaths, this
being lower than in any year since 1900. The report shows that
plague has been curiously partial in its distribution, many
parts of the Dependency having almost entirely escaped its
ravages. It is shown that the civil hospitals and dispensaries
in India (2,514 in number) treated 412,425 indoor and no fewer
than 24,469,548 outdoor patients.
PUBLIC HEALTH: Japan: A. D. 1904-1905.
Army Sanitation in the War with Russia.
See (in this Volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1904-1905--at the end.
PUBLIC HEALTH: Malaria:
A Lesson in Practical Hygiene from Italy.
Slowness in using the knowledge gained.
The following is from a letter by Dr. William Osier to the
London _Times_, dated at Rome, March, 3, 1909: "We owe
much to the Italians for their contributions to our knowledge
of the cause of malaria. Laveran’s great discovery was
promptly fathered by Marchiafava and Celli and Golgi, and it
was through their writings that we obtained the fullest
details of the nature and structure of the malarial parasite.
As an old student of the disease and deeply interested in the
practical problems of its prevention, one of my first visits
in Rome was to the Laboratories of Pathology and of Hygiene to
find out from the Directors, Marchiafava and Celli, the
progress of the battle. It was not enough to know the cause;
we had to know how it worked before effective measures could
be taken, and the demonstration by Ross of the transmission of
the disease by the mosquito at once put malaria on the list of
easily preventable infections. Just ten years ago the Italian
Society for the Study of Malaria was founded, and I was able
to get a full report of the work.
"In Professor Celli’s lecture-room hangs the mortality chart
of Italy for the past 20 years. In 1887 malaria ranked with
tuberculosis, pneumonia, and the intestinal disorders of
children as one of the great infections, killing in that year
21,033 persons. The chart shows a gradual reduction in the
death-rate, and in 1906 only 4,871 persons died of the
disease, and in 1907 4,160. This remarkable result has been
very largely due to the sanitary measures introduced by the
society. It has long been known that malaria disappears
‘spontaneously.’ The Fen country is now healthy; parts of
Canada, about Lakes Ontario and Erie, which were formerly
hotbeds of the disease, are now free. This cannot be
attributed altogether to cultivation and drainage. I know
places on the shores of the lakes just mentioned in which the
conditions today are identical with those which I remember as
a boy. The Desjardin Canal Marsh at the extreme western end of
Lake Ontario was a well-known focus of the disease. The marsh
remains, the mosquitoes are there; but a case of malaria is
almost as rare as in England. The disappearance is largely due
to the free use of quinine. The settlers early recognized the
important fact that malaria was a disease liable to recur, and
it became a common practice to take Peruvian bark every spring
and autumn for a year or two after an attack. This is a point
in prophylaxis which the work of the Italian Society has
brought into prominence. From the summary of the decennial
report just issued, the following paragraphs are of interest:
"‘The society has improved the prophylaxis of malaria, and has
introduced into practice the new mechanical measures based on
the defence of the habitation and the individual from the
bites of mosquitoes. This being a relatively expensive
procedure, the society has occupied itself chiefly with the
improvement of the anti-plasmodic prophylaxis—the
administration of quinine. For this purpose it has promoted
and defended legislation for the gratuitous distribution of
quinine to the poor and to all workers in malarial localities.
…
"‘The results have been that since 1902, when the law on State
quinine was promulgated, while the consumption of quinine has
been yearly increasing, the mortality from malaria has
diminished from about 16,000 to about 4,000 yearly; and in the
army, Custom House Offices, and in some communes where the new
laws have been better applied, the morbidity from malaria has
greatly diminished.’
"By these measures, and ‘by means of the agricultural and
agrarian transformation of the land and colonization, rather
than by the destruction of mosquitoes (a thing impossible to
be done by us on a large scale),’ Italy may be freed from the
scourge."
In a lecture at the Royal Institution, London, in May, 1909,
Major Ronald Ross, one of the most notable workers in this
field of sanitary science, spoke discouragingly of the
progress made in applying the knowledge gained. He said:
"The immediate success hoped for ten years ago had not been
attained. The battle still raged along the whole line, but it
was no longer a battle against malaria but against human
stupidity. Those who had taken part in it had reasoned and
been ridiculed; had given the most stringent experimental
proofs and had been disbelieved; had protested and been called
charlatans. … The few persons who had fought the fight and
failed were scarcely able to continue it, and if no stronger
influences could be excited the future of malaria prevention
in British dominions would certainly be as barren as the past
had been."
{520}
PUBLIC HEALTH: Panama Canal:
The Sanitation of the Canal Zone.
Extirpation of Malaria and Yellow Fever.
Report of Secretary Taft.
In the fall of 1905 Secretary Taft made a visit of inspection
to the Canal, and gave, on his return, an interesting account
of the conditions he found, in an address before the St. Louis
Commercial Club. On the work of Sanitation in progress, under
the direction of Dr. W. C. Gorgas, U. S. A., he gave the
following description: "When Judge Magoon [appointed Governor
of the Canal Zone] arrived upon the Isthmus, he found Dr.
Gorgas battling manfully against the yellow fever, but the
cases seemed to be increasing. Judge Magoon conceived the idea
that the fumigation which had been confined to two or three
houses might well be extended to all the houses in Panama, and
at considerable expense, and after procuring a large amount of
material, every house in Panama was fumigated once every two
weeks. To secure increased vigilance and popular assistance he
employed all [the respectable Panamanian physicians of Panama
as inspectors of the districts of that city, at annual
salaries of $1,200 a year. He also offered $50 reward for the
discovery of any case of yellow fever not reported. By methods
of this kind the native apathy, usually so great an obstacle
to successful sanitation in Spanish countries, was
neutralized.
"The plan of fumigation is as follows: Strips of paper are
placed across the windows, which ordinarily have no glass or
any netting in them, and then by the fumes either of sulphur
or pyrethrum every nook and cranny of the house is visited.
These gases are fatal or paralyzing to the mosquito. After
sufficient time has passed the house is opened, and then a
corps of health employees are set to work cleaning the house
and sweeping out the dead mosquitoes, which are found in great
numbers upon the floors. The mosquitoes are burned to avoid
further mischief. By these methods, for which Dr. Gorgas and
Governor Magoon are both to be credited with great praise,
yellow fever has been reduced to a point where during the last
month only three cases were reported, not one of these among
canal employees, and all originating many miles from the canal
line. The efforts to subdue the fever, instead of being
relaxed, are being continued. Square miles of woven-wire
netting with interstices so small as to prevent the entrance
of mosquitoes are spread about the piazzas of the houses of
all Americans and foreigners who come to live under the
auspices of the Canal Commission in the Isthmus. The windows
inside are also screened, and then mosquito-bars on the beds
are used as a third precaution. Whenever a case of yellow
fever is discovered, the patient is at once either removed to
the hospital and put under a woven-wire screen, or, if he
prefers to remain at home, the woven-wire screen is put over
him and an orderly placed in charge of him at his own
residence. In this way he is prevented from furnishing a
supply of the poison to the healthy mosquitoes, who, in turn,
by stinging, would bring it back to man. In other words, the
plan is to kill all the mosquitoes, well or ill, keep them as
much as possible from stinging man, and isolate every man with
yellow fever, not from his fellows, but from mosquitoes. …
Little by little, and facing discouragement after
discouragement, the two thousand employees of the sanitary
department are winning in this fight against disease, upon
which the whole success of the canal work depends. As Mr.
Stevens said to me, when I crossed the Isthmus with him this
month, ‘I take off my hat to the work which the sanitation
department has done in this Canal Zone.’"
A report to the London _Times_, in June, 1909, of
conditions on the Canal and in the Canal Zone, shows the
effectiveness with which this work of sanitation was done.
More arduous than the campaign against yellow fever, says the
writer, "was the campaign against malaria, a disease from
which 80 per cent. of the people were suffering to some
degree. This campaign consisted in warfare against mosquitoes
and in the administration of quinine, and the efforts in this
respect have also been highly successful. In 1906 the
proportion of canal _employés_ treated for malaria was no
less than 821 in the thousand. In 1908 it had fallen to 282 in
the thousand. The general effect of sanitary measures may
best be judged from the death-rate among the tens of thousands
of canal _employés_. In 1906 it was 41.73 to the
thousand, and in 1908 it was only 13.01 to the thousand,
making the canal one of the most healthy industrial
establishments in the world."
PUBLIC HEALTH: PELLAGRA:
Lombroso’s Discovery of its Source.
Its now recognized Seriousness.
In 1872 Cesare Lombroso, the noted criminologist, "incurred a
great deal of odium for a discovery which proved to be of much
scientific and economic importance. He noted the fact that a
large number of the inmates of asylums were suffering from
_pellagra_, a curious disease, which first affected the
skin and afterwards attacked the brain and nervous system.
Lombroso discovered that the disorder was to be traced to a
poison contained in diseased maize, which the Lombardian
landowners were in the habit of doling out to the poor
peasantry. At a time when toxins were unknown, Lombroso
succeeded in extracting the poison from the maize and
infecting animals with it—quite in the manner of modern
bacteriologists. His discovery was received with much
derision; but a friend of Lombroso, M. Alfred Maury, reported
the facts to Berthelot, the Parisian chemist, who analysed the
poison and established the fact that the maize contained an
injurious substance resembling strychnine but differing from
it in important particulars. The validity of Lombroso’s
discovery was thus triumphantly established. He was not
satisfied with this initial success, but for several years
fought on the platform and in the Press for an improvement in
the economic conditions of the peasantry whereby the ravages
of the disease might be combated." In late years his work of
agitation on the subject has been continued by many others.
The disease is of recognized seriousness in Italy, France, and
latterly in the United States. In November, 1909, the American
Government appointed an official commission to investigate it.
PUBLIC HEALTH: PURE FOOD LAWS:
International Congresses.
The first International Congress for discussion and action on
the subject of Pure Food was assembled at Geneva in 1908, and
attended by about 600 persons. The second was held at Paris in
October, 1909, and much more largely attended.
PUBLIC HEALTH: PURE FOOD LAWS: United States: A. D. 1906.
Legislation at the end of a long struggle.
Bulletin No. 104 of the Bureau of Chemistry, Department of
Agriculture, entitled "Food Legislation during the year ended
June 30, 1906," introduces the text of National and State laws
enacted that year with the following remarks: "Food
legislation for the year ended July 1, 1906, is the most
important in the history of the United States. A Federal
pure-food bill in various forms has been before Congress
continuously for more than twenty years, and such a bill
became a law on June 30, 1906. On the same day, as part of the
appropriation bill of the United States Department of
Agriculture, in the sections providing for the Bureau of
Animal Industry, important legislation was enacted with
reference to the inspection of meat and meat food products."
{521}
The Federal Food and Drugs Act of June 30, 1906, enacts in its
first section "That it shall be unlawful for any person to
manufacture within any Territory or the District of Columbia
any article of food or drug which is adulterated or
misbranded, within the meaning of this Act; and any person who
shall violate any of the provisions of this section shall be
guilty of misdemeanor, and for each offense shall, upon
conviction thereof, be fined not to exceed five hundred
dollars or shall be sentenced to one year’s imprisonment, or
both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the
court, and for each subsequent offense and conviction thereof
shall be fined not less than one thousand dollars or sentenced
to one year’s imprisonment, or both such fine and imprisonment,
in the discretion of the court."
The second section declares:
"That the introduction into any State or Territory or the
District of Columbia from any other State or Territory or the
District of Columbia, or from any foreign country, or shipment
to any foreign country of any article of food or drugs which
is adulterated or misbranded within the meaning of this Act,
is hereby prohibited"; and penalties are prescribed for
violations of the law, being a fine not exceeding $200 for the
first offense, and for the second offense a fine not to exceed
$300, or imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both, in the
discretion of the court.